Similar to Brave New World, ‘The Party’ in 1984 controls its minions through repeated brainwashing. However, unlike in Huxley’s classic, The Party uses propaganda as its main tool for keeping the population under its thumb. With slogans such as “Freedom is slavery” and “Ignorance is Strength” , the dwellers of Air Strip One are convinced that their leader Big Brother is the one true savior. Every minute of their lives, the people are bombarded by useless information from the never sleeping telescreen. Every day they are told things like, “we have won the battle for production! Returns now completed of the output of all classes of consumption goods show the standard of living has risen by no less than 20 percent over the last year.” Of course all the facts produced are unverifiable and almost certainly completely false. Furthermore, just as in Brave New World, freedom of expression is non-existent. No books are published that are not somehow related to the successes of Big Brother and The Party. In the Ministry of Truth, facts are modified daily to suit the needs of the party. Once this is done, the populace is asked to perform what is known as ‘doublethink’ and forget what they once thought to be true and accept what is now presented to them. With the aforementioned mechanisms, The Party has rendered the population not only powerless to act, but also to think.
Totalitarian governments deprive their citizens of essential freedoms and rights but they also provide a sense of security. In the case of Brave New World, the population doesn’t need to think for themselves, leaving the important decisions to the leaders of the world. Bred from birth, the Gammas, Deltas and even the lowly Epsilons are meant to feel that their menial tasks are essential to the global cause. They feel secure in the fact that they are contributing in a small way, but that anything vital will be passed on to someone of greater intelligence than themselves. After all, “everyone works for everyone else. We couldn’t do without anyone. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons.” In addition to this, everyone is doing the same things. Apart from the obvious physical differences, everyone is doing the same thing. After work, everyone goes to play Obstacle or Electro Magnetic Golf. In fact when Morgana inquires to Bernard, “what were you playing this afternoon?.... Obstacle, or Electro-magnetic,” she is shocked to find out that he was doing neither. Morgana, the typical orthodox, is secure in her identity, Bernard, however, is not. In sum, the populace is made to feel secure in knowing that they are part of a greater whole.
In likeness to Brave New World, the people of 1984 feel secure in the knowledge that they are part of a greater whole. Everybody contributes in some way to the survival of the party, and the more attentive you are to your duties the less likely you are to receive a visit from the dreaded Thought Police, “... The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered.” People are comforted by the belief that all the bad ones will be found and promptly brought to justice by the almost omnipotent forces of justice.
The difference between 1984 and Brave New World is that, in the former, the sense of security. Unlike the peaceful citizens of Brave New World, the residents of 1984 live in a war torn land. Amidst this, they enjoy a sense of security in thinking that their living conditions are the best they could possibly hope for. Before the great civil war, the capitalists in their big top hats hoarded the world’s riches and resources while the rest suffered. Even if this were true, which it is not, things couldn’t be much worse. As Winston wonders about his neighborhood, “were there always these vistas of rotting nineteenth-century houses, their sides shored up with bulks of timber, their windows patched with cardboard and their roofs with corrugated iron, their crazy garden walls sagging in all directions?” It is possible to conclude then, beyond a doubt, that the sense of security provided by this totalitarian rule is a false one.
Finally, while totalitarian governments take away civil rights and freedoms and provide a sense of security, are any of their citizens truly happy? In Brave New World, it would be possible to say that this is true in a very broad sense. When they feel sad, they take a ‘soma holiday’. Whenever you feel glum, “take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.” While this prevents the population from every being unhappy, they are never truly happy. In fact, they don’t feel very much at all. Slaves to routine, even sex doesn’t really bring pleasure, it is more a fact of life. They are convinced they are happy through subliminal messaging, “Everybody’s happy now” . However, as they experience no love or true joy of accomplishment this is hard to believe. In sum, they believe they are happy because they have nothing with which to compare their standard of happiness.
As In Brave New World, the people of 1984 are not happy. In fact The Party feels it no longer necessary to experience such a useless emotion as love. “You are under the impression that hatred is more exhausting than love. Why should it be?” In this future the world will strive off hatred of the enemy, the need to crush the opposition. Already the act of love has been fouled, becoming more of a chore than a desire. In the near future, the bond between mother and child will no longer exist, and soon thereafter, there will be no more mothers only genetically engineered children. As in Brave New World, the populace of 1984 think they are happy, but they most certainly are not.
In conclusion, through two classic novels, Brave New World and 1984, this essay was able to examine certain important characteristics of a totalitarian government. Once these characteristics are closely examined, it is clear that the key to happiness lies in freedom. As totalitarians governments take away freedom to provide security, happiness becomes non-existent. Thus totalitarian governments are to be feared, as forewarned by those two great novels. The question remains however; can it be avoided?
